Yorkshire’s first ever single malt whisky distillery, located in the village Hunmanby, near Filey Bay on the Yorkshire Coast.
Filey Bay are a field to bottle distillery, which means we can define every step of our growing and distilling process.
The below notes are from the recent Spirit Of Yorkshire tweet tasting. We sampled 3 expressions from the distillery:
- Filey bay Flagship 46% ABV – made with 100% homegrown barley and is the culmination of our bourbon matured style following on from our First and Second Releases launched in 2019
- Filey Bay Moscaatel Finish 46% ABV – this field to bottle single malt was initially matured in 200L bourbon casks (filled in 2016), before being transferred to 250L Hogshead barrels from Spain that had held Moscatel for 10 years prior to this. The use of bourbon casks followed by Moscatel barrels
- Filey Bay STR Finish 46% ABV – distilled in 2016, this ‘field to bottle’ single malt spent years maturing in bourbon casks before transferring to be ‘finished’ in shaved, toasted and re-charred red wine barriques, which came from sunny Rioja vineyards in Spain
Filey Bay Flagship 46% ABV
Appearance: Light gold, straw, some legs
Nose: Red apples, lemon drop barley, sugared almonds and warming Christmas spices. Good nose. Peaches and cream, the red apple aroma is turning more green apple as the glass matures (crisper). Honey nut cornflakes spring to mind too!
There is a floral edge to the nose, perfumed. Now that the glass has matured slightly, I’m getting some gentle oaky notes
Palate: Immediate chocolate and mouthfeel to match. Some fresh mint and herbs too. The lemon elements from the nose are still there, but with that sweeter edge to them now. Lemon Meringue pie & custard (biscuit base obviously) springs to mind. There is a fizz to it and some metallic, copper tones too.
Finish: Finish is medium length, with that fizz and chocolatty undertones. Very nice, leaves you wanting more!
Overall: A very nice start to the tasting. Good solid whisky with a nice complexity but well balanced. I could have done without the metallic edge but it didn’t affect the dram overall.
Filey Bay Moscatel Finish 46% ABV
Appearance: Summer honey, sunset gold. More substantial legs than the Flagship, thick and slow
Nose: Rich and deep, oak notes mixed with confectionary sugar and dark fruits. There is some spiciness, but it’s well balanced with the stewed fruits. Like a Forest fruit crumble. Cola bottles.
Palate: Plenty of jam, really nice thick fruit forward flavours. Some white pepper, like adding pepper to strawberries, only enhances the flavour. This doesn’t taste as chocolatty/creamy on the palate to me as the Flagship. There’s more spice which might influence that. Does taste like a higher ABV, which I like.
Finish: Nice short to medium finish. Nice balance of fruit and spice and finally digestive biscuit
Overall: I prefer the sensation of higher ABV to the FLagship, I also like the fruit jaminess. If this had the initial creaminess of the Flagship it would have been awesome, it is, however, very good!
Filey Bay STR Finish 46% ABV
Appearance: Orange gold, dark honey held up to the sun. Lovely legs, nice viscosity
Nose: Lovely balance of creaminess and fruity depth and luxuriousness (it’s a word). There’s a touch of warming spice supporting too. Like Campari sweets. Getting the wood notes now the glass has matured slightly. There’s also some chili heat too
Palate: There’s a batteriness to it, like plain pancakes. So, paired with the fruits it’s like one of those fruit and cream crepes you get from a stall on holiday in Majorca (you know the one!). I get light toffee at the back, towards the finish now, a bit ‘Werthers’.
Finish: The finish is buttery fruit crumble with cinnamon and a touch of heat. Again short to medium. Very nice.
Overall: This one takes the best elements from the first two, combines them and turns up the volume. Very nice!
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